Teaching Your Child About Social Networking

These days, social media is a fact of life. Whether your child is 12 years old, 16 years, old, or 21 years old; a portion of their life is probably reported on social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter. And while many parents wish that their children didn’t spend so much time communicating, sharing, and learning from these social network, we must accept that the kids really enjoy it and most of their friends are doing it.

The earlier you teach your kid about social networking such as Facebook and Twitter – the more informed they will be. If you don’t tell them about it – they are going to find out about it anyway. If you hide it from them – they will become rebellious. So, by teaching it to them, you will be better involved and can at least guide them on how to approach social networking.

Remember, there are several positive attributes to social media. Family and friends which live in other cities, can seem not so far away as a result of social networking. And class notes, reminders, and information can be shared on social networks to better help your child be clued in to what is going on in school. You can also potentially arrange your child to join groups of other homeschooling kids so that they can get to know each other and even plan social gatherings. And again, if your child learns how to use social networking in a productive way – it can be a great tool for them in the future as they get older and mature.

Many parents do set age limits on social networking. Some parents don’t allow their child to use it until college while others allow use for it at the start of high school. With the exploding growth of social media, it is very difficult for a youngster, especially one who enjoys computers, to not use social media in high school. So, while kids probably don’t need it in middle school – many parents do have a tough time not allowing Facebook access throughout the high school years.

Of course, once you have a child on Facebook – doesn’t mean that you can’t monitor and limit their use. It is very important that your kid has balance and does physical and outdoor activities in addition to social networking. Video games and social networking can fall into the same category as both involve entertainment whereby the kid isn’t active. And both can become very obsessive and addictive, so it is important to monitor and find ways to limit use as a way to promote balance in your child’s life.

Social networking can be a great educational and social tool. And it is everywhere so your kid will find out about it before you, and they will learn more about it than you as well. The best thing to do is to embrace social media but stay involved so that you as a parent, can understand how it is impacting your child.

Homeschooling is a challenge, but it can have outstanding rewards for yourself. At the same time, it can be reat for your child. Just be sure to take it very seriously and try to make an effort to separate your roll as an everyday parent with your roll as a home school teacher.


The famous daily shows you important history that happened on this day.